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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Happy Trails Stocking Island “Georgetown”

One of the few areas the Stocking Island trails were too rough;we turned back. What a ruggedly beautiful view though!

Georgetown is a great stop
for provisioning, doing laundry, catching up on internet, cruiser
get-togethers, meeting guests, and resource sharing with loads of safe places
in the area to anchor.Three
hundred plus boats anchoring in Georgetown’s Elizabeth Harbour is not
unusual.Still, our Bahamas Lonely
Planet Bahamas guide dismissively notes, “Georgetown is charming, though
there’s not much to keep you from moving on quickly [to other more interesting
places in the Exuma chain of islands].”

We’re not that keen on long
stays in heavily populated anchorages, yet there are far worse places to be
“stuck,” and we were.

First it was waiting for
guests, Wayne’s Dad Phil and his wife Gunnel.Then we were too concerned to push quickly on when our
diesel engine made a disconcerting new noise (which did not repeat itself, and
anchorage neighbor and longtime Pearson 365 owner Ross of Sundance assured us
given the circumstances it was not likely to, and we were a.o.k.--so far, so good.).Weather report squall warnings gave us too short a
time period to head elsewhere quickly and confidently enough to hole up for the
predicted blow and make it back in time for Phil and Gunnel to catch their
flight back.

Gunnel sets up for one of many photos

at Stocking Island’s Monument
viewpoint.

Thus, we remained anchored
mostly off Stocking Island, across the harbor from Georgetown’s Great Exuma
Island for a few weeks.

If you like laid back
hiking, the Georgetown area’s worth a stop for that alone.

View down the backside of Monument Trail,

where crushed white limestone,
lush

green foliage and Exuma Sound’s waters

shimmer in a vivid palette of
blues.

Stocking Island’s chock full
of trails, both on the placid Elizabeth Harbour side, and traversing over
to the more rugged Atlantic Ocean’s Exuma Sound.For a relatively tiny place, there’s a decent variety of interesting
terrain, and despite all those boats anchored in the harbor, it’s not unusual
to be alone on a vast stretch of beach.Most of the trails are well marked (discarded shoes -- usually flip-flops
or crocs -- are favorite cruiser trail markers), and well maintained.

If there was any doubt we were following

a shoreline
trail…

We hiked for hours every
couple of days.Only on the
Northern tip on the Exuma Sound side of Stocking Island did the trails become
too much of a bushwhack.That time,
we just doubled back and before long caught a good cross island trail to our
favorite out-of-the-way spot on Stocking Island, quirky FlipFlop Beach.

Wayne scaling a steeper sectionof Stocking Island’s Monumenttrail. Strategically placed rope made it an easy up and down.

Wayne’s expression says it all. There are bugsin paradise and on that calm day, we needed the insect repellant, badly for noseeums and mosquitos.Sunscreen, drinking water and insect repellentare the holy trinity in my daypack.

Whoever you are – thank you,
thank you, thank you!

Alas, even in the sandy sun-filled garden of modern-day Eden, there are a few ants -- well, mosquitos and noseeums -- to spoil paradise. They remind us when it's too windless to hike, or approaching suppertime -- theirs precedes ours as they arrive around between 4 and 5 pm.Outside these tiny winged vampires, there are sand burrs. These herbaceous pests deploy wickedly barbed velcro-like seed pods. They rely on their freewheeling nature for excellent dispersal and appear their strategy is proving quite successful throughout the islands.

This is the sand burr plant and itsevil but exceedingly effective seed.

The beauty of these islands makes these potential inconveniences well worth the hikes.

This is what happens to croc wearershapless enough for cross paths withsand burrs. Yes, you can feel themthrough the shoe and they really hurt!

Location LocationApril 2014 BAHAMAS. Retrospective --Stocking Island (N23.31.126 W75.45.544) is part of Elizabeth Harbour, which encompasses Georgetown. All are part of the Bahamas Exuma chain of islands, a popular cruising destination. We anchored in the Stocking Island area at various times through February and March 2014 to provision, explore, meet guests and find shelter from various storm fronts. We're in in Long Island's Clarencetown Harbor at this post's writing, crossing our fingers the Southwesterly forecast holds long enough for a good passage to Rum Cay. It's about 32 nm, and the 2nd leg of our deliberately slow journey back to the States.

Usually, there is no warning signfor sand burrs. We usually findsand burrs the hard way, sowe appreciated the heads up.

Not hard to guess how this trail it got itsname, Shoe Tree Trail. Shoes, often foundwashed ashore Bahama beaches, arecommonly used to mark trails incruiser-populated areas.